Lesson #4
Symbology

I found the discussion concerning the orientation of the altar, directionally, to be interesting. While my own altars face many directions for many purposes, I found Lord Starwalker's discussion of air over earth, for example, to be an interesting perspective. For myself, altars can be devotional and also practical. I have an altar to Ogma, God of Letters, on which I store my various rune sets. In this way, the runes always stay near their patron and are always "charging" as I like to think of it. It has worked quite well for me

Yes, I do mean N, S, E, and W as far as directions go. While I do try to keep the cardinal direction in mind when setting up an altar, there are sometimes more pressing issues, like practicality. I see that the cardinal directions offer suggestions for alignment, not requirements

I find the Ogham to be incredibly useful, practical, etc, etc. I learned what I call the "Colin Murray" system, based upon Murray's work of the 1980's. I think his work was good (good enough for me). I had the opportunity to ask Skip about Murray he thought Murray did not dig deep enough with the forfeda. I tend to agree. I have therefore began rethinking the forfeda vis-a-vis Murray.

I find Ellen Hopman's work of the 1990s to be identical with Murray's - now her work looks more like Laurie's. Regardless, I think Hopman is an interesting read and she is a skilled author

I think Laurie's work on the Ogham is interesting but not essential

I have been fortunate to have access to Skip Ellison and I think his work is a "must have". He uses the Ogham quite often and he has delved further into this system that most others, in my opinion

Thanks for your comments. I had a conversation with Skip about his last couple of books a few months ago. I noticed that the second aicme had all been printed backwards in both books that I had; he was unaware of it! He said that he was working on an updated edition and would make sure that the error was corrected. Apparently the problem came from a downloaded font. Incidentally, I have been an ADF member for about three years now.

I actually found Laurie's book quite interesting. She definitely takes a more poetic approach to the subject.

I'm unfamiliar with Colin Murray- I'll see if I can find his book as well. Thanks for the info on that.